All 05.0 - Rabbits and Tigers and Elves, Oh My
It was the morning of the 16th of Tishrei, when the group got assigned to another job. Congregating at the CSIS office, Victor, Caitlyn and Lucca were informed of their task for the day. Apparently the family of a local ecclectic, one Mr. Rudolph Avalon, was worried because they had not heard from him in some time. They had opted to hire CSIS to investigate rather than look themselves, as he was known to keep a rather extensive and possibly dangerous collection, and they would rather send professionals than risk getting harmed. The three were to go to his manor just outside of the city and see if the man was alright. With surprising little bickering, the three walked out to the estate. Once arriving, they found that it was indeed a large house with a significant garden and lawn which had been kept immaculately. Looking about the yard, they found the gardener's quarters, and proceed to knock on the door. They were eventually greeted by the gardener, an old, very senile old man who let them into the main house. At first he thought that they were visitors for his master, thanks to Caitlyn's choice of phrasing, but once they were inside, it was made clear that they were hired by Mr. Avalon's family to locate him. The ordeal seemed to affect the gardener, who opted to return to his home after informing them that the master usually stayed upstairs , and that he personally had never been into the main house. The three split up and began to investigate. It became very clear after mere moments in the house that Mr. Avalon's reputation as a collector was not undeserved: every room was packed full of stuff of the most curious and odd sort, as well as with more books than could be counted. Lucca stayed on the main floor; the first room he entered was a parlour of sorts with packed bookshelves, and he did not make it much farther. Victor and Caitlyn went upstairs and began to systematically check the rooms on the second and third floors, as well as the attic. Though they found all sorts of strange and interesting items in the empty rooms, including a pot that could boil water on command, a fishing rod that could only catch carp, a hat that lit up and a Ghost Touch scythe, they could not locate the man. Most of the rooms looked like they hadn't been used in months or years, particularly the highest floors which appeared to have been relegated entirely to storage. However, a few of the second floor rooms including a bathroom and bedroom, seemed to have been used in at least the last few days. Returning to find Lucca buried a book, Victor and Caitlyn carried on investigating. They found a large, grand study that appeared to be recently used, though empty at the time. While Caitlyn looked at the papers on, in and around the desk, Victor's eye was caught on a particularly foriegn-looking sword that was displayed over the mantle. He couldn't resist testing it, and when they went on to the next room, he took it with him; he responded to Caitlyn's snide implications of theft with the assertation that he was going to ask to buy it when they found the owner. Their investigation led them to the dining room. As they were about to enter, they heard a growling sound from behind the closed doors. Opening it slowly, they found the room had been trashed. In the center, sitting on the large table and looking rather grouchy and hungry, was a tiger. Closing the door quickly and returning to Lucca, they discussed their options. No one was in any hurry to hurt the animal, but Lucca, despite the others' insistances that he was a druid, was wary of trying to tame it. Eventually they decided that the best thing to do was feed the animal before doing anything, in an attempt to calm it. To that end, they sent Caitlyn with a scroll from the manor back to town, where she traded it for a scroll of Summon Nature's Ally. Returning to the dining room, Lucca cast the spell and managed to summon three chickens inside. The tiger, famished, lept upon the unwary foul and devoured them; after his meal, he lay back down on the table, licking his paws and appearing rather pleased. Lucca took this moment to enter and attempt to tame the feline, only to find that this animal was already rather tame to begin with. Purring and rubbing against the druid, the other two quietly made their way into the kitchen. It was here that they finally found Mr. Avalon; from the looks of it, he had suddenly collapsed and passed away while making food several days ago. Their mission complete, the three returned to the question of what to do with the tiger. After determining that the only people that could be called upon to deal with a tiger was their own organization, and that another group might deal with the exotic cat in a more final matter, they eventually settled on contacting the local zoo. Victor was elected to go fetch zoo officials; before leaving, he stated that, if there was anything in the mansion that anyone wanted, they may as well take it, on the grounds that no one could possibly know that things had been taken and, based on the family's hesitance to enter the house to begin with, everything was likely to be sold at auction anyhow. At that, Caitlyn produced a list that she had apparently been making from the very beginning. While Victor convinced zoo officials to bring a cage and wagon to the Avalon house, Caitlyn collected up all of the items that she had found of useful worth. With the tame tiger relocated and the clandestine goods packed and divided up, the three reported back to CSIS. Several days passed uneventfully, until the rainy morning of the 23rd. Lucca was spending a peaceful morning reading in his make-shift apartment, when a familiar elf with yellow and red hair burst in. After a few minutes of initial confusion, whereupon Lucca had to prove he was in fact the same guy as before, Cress began to excitedly and not-very-eloquently ask for Lucca's, and his partners', help with a small issue. Apparently, Cress' brother had had three very valuable activation gems stolen from him, the devices used to work the Lightning Transit, and Cress had taken it upon himself to find the thief and return the stolen goods, winning the respect of his boss, his mother, at the same time. Lucca, finding Cress to be hilarious and having nothing better to do, agreed, though he doubted that Caitlyn in particular would be as readily on-board with the idea. Realizing that neither of them knew where Victor lived, and honestly didn't know how Cress had managed to find Lucca to begin with, the pair set off towards Caitlyn's house. The pair made the way to her shared townhouse and began to knock on the door like a pair of hyper preschoolers. Caitlyn's roommate Art answered the door, not pleased with the commotion, and left to send down Caitlyn. When she arrived, she recieved the same request at Lucca, though Cress abridged the details somewhat. Caitlyn was hesitant at first to agree; she, unlike Lucca, had read the morning's news and had heard of the theft. According to reports, the Kalleandar Station had been robbed by a notorious thief, Cherise, wanted for numerous serious charges including 9 counts of first degree murder, making Caitlyn more than a little hesitant to agree. Cress reassured her that they weren't going after her, just the items, and that they were probably in a storehouse or something. When they asked him how he knew where to look, Cress explained that his brother knew where she went, and they just had to go talk to him. Caitlyn, still off-put, tentatively agreed. She knew where Victor was living, so the trio set out for there next. After a repeat of Lucca and Cress' Rhythm Spectacular played out on Victor's door, Victor answered having obviously been pulled out of the bath. Everyone piled into his mostly barren apartment while he changed. Cress relayed the request to Victor, truncated even further this time. The three agreed that, while they wanted nothing to do with Cherise, it couldn't hurt too much to go talk to Cress' brother. Dressed and ready, they set out. Cress led them to the Arlington Station, took them through a back door, and used a private portal, probably reserved for employees. They found themselves in another back room; Cress explained that he probably could have teleported right into his brother's house, but he wasn't sure he had the security keys for that room. He was certain he had the keys for the back door though, so he led them through the capital. Heading towards the high-end district of town, they found themselves in front of a rather nice mansion that Caitlyn recognized as belonging to Frederick Jenner, the creator of the Lightning Transit technology; Cress explained that he was actually his brother. The group snuck around to a back enterance as Cress explained that they should probably avoid the maid and the butler, the only two staff members in the house, and should really avoid his nephew Lupin, who was apparently a stick in the mud and a pain to deal with. Pulling out a keyring laden with all manner of small, colourful devices, he began to lead them through the manor, which was apparently trapped and rigged with alarms all throughout it that Cress stopped to disarm. After leading them through the house and poking his head into many a doorway, Cress finally found the one he was looking for. Greeting his brother, and "Mr. W", he called the three into the study. As Cress explained that these were awesome detectives and that the four of them were going to reclaim the stolen goods, Lucca, Caitlyn and Victor were met with two men who were apparently in the middle of having a drink: Mr. Jenner, who was burying his face in his palm, and Mr. Webber, who appeared to be having a hard time containing his laughter. Mr. Jenner, telling the babbling Cress to shut up, waved his hand and cast Silence upon the chattering elf. Meanwhile, Mr. Webber pressed the other three to tell him exactly what they knew about where they were and who they were with, and how they had come upon that knowledge. The three outlined what they knew about Cress, Ginger, the Syndicate, Mr. Jenner's true identity as Narcissus Rivale, and Mr. Webber's obvious affiliation with them, and that they had learned this all almost entirely by accident. The two older men proceded to have a conversation regarding the CSIS employees, and an arguement regarding their abilities that ended in a bet: Mr. Webber bet that the three of them could follow Cherise into the Underdark where she had fled and not only survive, a feat unto itself, but also at least learn something of interest. He bet his personal attunement gem; if he won, then Narcissus would have to make him a new gem and they would keep his old one. If he lost, then Narcissus wouldn't make him another one, and he would have to make due without, his old one ostensibly lost in the Underdark forever. Assured of their success, Pierce explaned that they would need a gem if they were to be promoted. With that, they were led to another room containing a portal. Mr. Jenner showed everyone how to use the gem to select a location, and they were given the addresses to the Underdark portal, and the employee portals in Kalleandar and Arlington. Preparing to leave, Cress made it clear that he was going with them, despite his brother's nay-saying. As the portal activated, Mr. Jenner magically shoved Cress out of the way, and he was left behind. The trio found themselves in a completely dark cave, their ankles submerged in running water. Activating Victor's light-up hat, they found themselves in a large cavern, the floor of which was submerged under a shallow river, and which had no less than four tunnels leading away from it. Deciding there was nothing for it but to explore, the group headed upstream. After two hours of walking, they found the tunnel turned sharply upward; a steep, slick ridge forming a waterfall that blocked their path. Their attempts to climb it were unsuccessful, so they turned back. They took one of the parallel paths from the central cavern; two hours of walking revealed a dead end. Frustrated and tired, they agreed to try one more path. After about an hour and a half, Lucca began to find spider webbing all throughout the tunnel. Fifteen minutes later, they heard a loud knocking coming from behind them. Caitlyn recognized it as a warning in morse code. They asked for clarification by smacking Lucca's mace against a rock, but the mysterious informant only said that it was dangerous, and that "Gaudi were ahead". Unwilling to risk it, the three turned around. As they made their way back, they passed a small widening of the tunnel when Lucca yelled out, suddenly realizing that there was something standing there. A gigantic grey rabbit, its hiding place found out, stood on its hind legs and held aloft a long club of some sort. It wore a bandolier and a pendant, and seemed to say something in a language none of them could understand. Using the mace for morse code again, the rabbit tapped out a response using its hollow club, proving it to be the mysterious informant from earlier. Pulling out his helmet of Comprehend Language, Lucca tried to speak with it. Using a system of Lucca's Comprehend Language and Caitlyn's knowledge of morse, they managed to work out a system of communication. The rabbit was apparently a Mimiga, a race they hadn't heard of before, though Lucca recognized the talking rabbits that lived underground from a children's story he had read. Her name was Cheko, she was a scout for a nearby village, and she had never met talking, non-violent humans before, much like they had never met a giant talking rabbit. She chatted as they walked back towards the tunnel; she hadn't seen anyone like Cherise in particular, but she did know where the humans were, and she did think that a colleague of hers might have mentioned something about a human in bright red clothes. They told her that they were from the surface, and that seemed to interest her greatly. With some cajoling, they convinced her to join them and visit the city. They returned to the portal cavern, and were about to return before Victor mentioned that it probably wasn't the best idea to take a giant talking bunny into the center of town. Emptying Lucca's backpack and hiding her in it, figuring that if anyone had an excuse to be carrying a large rabbit around it would be the druid, the group returned to Arlington. It was now very late, and the three investigators were all tired, hungry and snappy with each other. Victor demanded the attunement gem from Caitlyn, saying that he had to report to Pierce; the other two argued him, but eventually gave in. They all went to their respective homes, Lucca enthusiastically pointing out plants to the excited visitor from the depths on the way. Category:Advent of the All